Electrostatic toy system and package



March 3, 1970 5; E 3,497,994

ELECTROSTATIC TOY SYSTEM AND'PAGKAGE Filed Feb. 20, 1968 INVENTOR BERTLEE ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,497,994 ELECTROSTATIC TOY SYSTEM ANDPACKAGE Bert Lee, Salt Lake City, Utah, assignor to Jefferson D. Morgan,Enid, Okla. Filed Feb. 20, 1968, Ser. No. 706,981 Int. Cl. A63h 33/26,33/00 US. Cl. 46-233 3 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE This inventionrelates to toys and, more particularly, it relates to electrostatic toysfor manipulating movement of a charged body.

The art of generating electrostatic charges in different materials islong known, and electrostatically charged rods have been used in theprior art to manipulate the flight of an object through space, asexemplified by US. Patent 2,018,585 issued Oct. 22, 1935 to 'H. Weil.While such basic theoretical principles are well known, it is desirablein a toy system or game to have a system of several elements which maybe involved with some mystery and which can be cooperatively operatedonly in accordance with a particular procedure to produce a flightsystem. Also, a system of cooperative toy elements should beconveniently packaged for storage and display.

Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide anelectrostatic flying toy system that operates only in a particularmysterious manner.

It is another object of the invention to provide an electrostatic flyingtoy system package and display system conveniently assembling aplurality of parts for visual inspection and for storage.

Therefore, in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of this inventiontwo hollow rods of different diameter constructed of transparentinsulating material that will take and hold an electrostatic charge arecoaxially stored with frictionally held end caps about the outer rod.Also inserted within the package in a pleasing and visually observabledisplay is a silk cloth or fabric for frictionally generating a chargeon the rods, a flight member such as a colored feather or paper spaceship, and a set of secret" operating instrutions showing how to generateproper charges for flight control.

The foregoing together with further objects and features are found inatypical embodiment of the invention described in detail with referenceto the accompanying drawing wherein an electrostatic toy system packageassembly is shown partly broken away and in section in FIGURE 1. FIGURE2 shows an exploded view of the assembly, and FIGURE 3 is a sketchshowing the control of flight with the toy.

Two hollow transparent rods 2 and 3 of different diameter such as oneinch inner diameter and three-quarter inch outer diameter respectivelyand of substantially equal length are coaxially aligned within two endcaps 4 and 5. The rods may be of transparent insulating material which Pi. C

will attain and hold an electrostatic charge. Such materials areavailable in commerce under trade names such as Lucite or Plexiglas. Thecaps 4 and 5 may be of rubber which frictionally fit over the ends ofthe outside rod 2 and preferably are ridged by a concentric receptaclerecess of such size that they will also frictionally fit over the innerrod 3.

Packed between the two rods 2 and 3, within the packaging arrangement,is a piece of fabric 6 such as a colored silk handkerchief whichenvelops the end of inner rod 3 and thus can be used ram-rod like tomove within the outer rod to frictionally generate a static charge. Thisfabric 6 also keeps the two rods from contact or vibration duringshipment and storage.

Also packed within the inner rod 3 are a chargeable flying object suchas feather 7 and a set of written secret instructions 8 which give theappropriate operating conditions for generating those charges in rods 2,3 and flying object 7 for sustaining flight under control of the rods.This gives the toy system a scientific mystery content so that it may beused to si-milate the aspects of controlling flying saucers or unknownflying objects which overcome the force of gravity as if by superintelligent persons from outer space.

As to operation of this system, many variables exist even with therelatively few elements involved. The hollow rods thus may be chargedinternally or externally with or without end caps on place in either rodand some procedure must be followed to generate in the flying object acharge of similar polarity to that of the rods to permit flight control.Normally a feather will tend to stick to a charged rod unless a specialoperating procedure is followed.

Feather, as used here, includes a piece of cotton and the like and maybe formed into a particular shape such as a toy airplane, rocket ship orbird.

One such operating procedure that has been found in accordance with thecooperation of the elements in this toy system package of this inventionis that the feather may be picked up on the end of one charged rod andmay be brought into a charged condition such that it sustains flight bypassing one end of the other charged rod closely past the feather inrotary motion enough times to generate the requisite charge on thefeather. Such a procedure constitutes the text of the written secretinstructions 8 packed within the hollow rods.

In the package assembly afforded by this invention, not only can avisual inspection of all elements of the system be made through thetransparent hollow rods, but the color schemes and shapes of the flyingobjects can be varied in a pleasing manner. Also, the operatinginstructions may be stored in place or removed at will from the innerhollow rod after the procedure is learned.

It is to be recognized, of course, that within the state of the art ofelectrostatically charged bodies, variations can be made that do notdepart from the spirit or scope of this invention. Thus, variousmaterials and charge conditions can be deemed equivalent to those hereindescribed.

What is claimed is:

1. An electrostatic toy system comprising in combination, a pair of rodsof insulating material that will sustain an electrostatic charge, atleast one of which is hollow having an inside diameter large enough tocomprise an outer rod receiving the other rod as an inner rod, a set ofend caps surrounding the ends of the outer rod to contain the inner rodwhich is positioned therein in a packaging arrangement, a piece offabric of such material that it generates frictional contact as bywiping an electrostatic charge in said insulating material, and a flyingobject such as a colored feather which will attain a charge permittingthe two rods to move it without physical contact, the fabric and flyingobject being placed inside said hollow outer rod, whereby the system maybe disassembled from inside said hollow outer rod, and the rods therebymay be charged by rubbing with said fabric to constitute a pair of wandsfor directing the flight of said object by means of electrostaticforces.

2. A combination as defined in claim 1, wherein the rods are both hollowtransparent rods.

3. A combination as defined in claim 2, including a set of secretoperating instructions packed Within one of the hollow rods in saidpackaging arrangement.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 10/1935 Weil 46233 FOREIGNPATENTS 8/1902 France.

US. Cl. X.R.

